Vaporizer



April 29, 1952 L. w. WALLACE ET AL 2,595,029

I VAPORIZER Filed July 9, 1949 I IHIIIHHIIIH.

ZLAM ATTORNEYS.

Patented Apr. 29, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIJCE VAPORIZER LawrenceW; Wallace and Charles- W; Kincaid, Cincinnati, Ohio;

Applicationaluly9, 1949, Serial No..103',844

liquid form by vaporization, while at the same time maintaining in suchroom adesirable relative. humidity. The word room which will be used forconvenience hereinafter will beunderstood to include any enclosure whichis to be conditioned, regardless of whether or not it is designed orintended for human occupancy;

Generally speaking, the object of the present invention is the provisionof'animproved, simple and inexpensive means for conditioning andsterilizing thegair in a room with deodorant, aromatic, therapeutic,antiseptic, germicidal or bactericidal agents, or water, in liquid formby vaporization.

Another object of the present invention is" the provision of an improvedand efiicient means for the control of the evaporizationrate of liquidwith which a room is to be conditioned.

Where the room is to be conditioned with triethylene glycol, forexample, it is yet anothersystems;

In connection with the above mentioned object of providing improvedcontrol means for the evaporization rate, it is still another object toprovide such control means in simple and. inexpensive form and toprovide control meanswhereby a Wide range. in evaporization ratemay beachieved.

A- still further. object of the present invention.

is: the provision of an apparatus ior. vaporizing concurrently, wheredesirable, two ormoradifferent deodorant, aromatic, therapeutic,antiseptic, germicidal or bactericidal agents, or water, in liquidformby vaporization. In connection with the last named object, it isyetanother objectoi theinvention.- to provide .means. whereby thevaporization. rate of the. different agents maybe.controlledindependentliy These and other objects of the invention whichWe shall point out in more detail hereinafter, orwhich will be apparentto those skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, weaccomplish by that certain construction and arrangeing; to the inventionwith parts broken away'to show the. construction;

Figure 2 isan elevational view of the same; Figure 3 is an endelevational view of the same; Figure 4- isan elevational view of' thedevice with the door removed taken on line- 4-4 of Figure 3 Figure 5 isafragmentary perspective view' of' one of the vaporizing chambersshowing the displaceable partitionand wick.

Briefly, in the practice of ourinvention we provide a. casing with twocompartments; the lower compartment isprovided'with spacer-or acontainer for the liquid or liquids, to be vaporized, and the uppercompartment consist of an evaporating chamber for each of the liquids tobe vaporized.

In the drawingswe have shown a device arranged for the vaporization oftwo liquids. As for example, triethylene glycol andwaten. Thus we haveshown. in Figure a reservoir for water and1a reservoir for triethyleneglycol; We have likewise shown two vaporizing chambers, onev for thewater and one for the triethylene glycol.

A wick extends from each of the reservoirs throughaperturesfin thehorizontal partition separating the upper and; lowercompartments of] thecasing and is attached to the, upper-end, or

a displaceable partition in. the respective evaporating chamber which isimmediately above the reservoir of the liquid to be vaporized.

The rate of, evaporization of. either liquid may beincreasedi ordecreased independently and. as desired. If it is. desired to increasethe. rate of ap rization. the cubic. ca acity of. the. vaporizin ham er.is. r duced bymo ing. the. dis lace.- ablapaltfi tion towards; thesource of. heat, which concurrently: brings the. wickv containing the.liquid to. be. vaporizedcloserto'the source of heat.

The rateof vaporizationmay be reduced by. in.- creasing the cubiccapacity of thevaporizing. chamber by. moving. the displaceablepartition iartherfrom. the? source of hfiahwhich concur te ly. emovesthe ick: 51 2 1393 rom. the Sou-lice.

or heat. a

It will be understood, of course, that the basic capacity of the unitcan be varied by a change in the size of the heating element and by achange in the width or thickness of the wick. These two variables willnormally be fixed in any given vaporizing apparatus. Nevertheless, theuser will be able to change the rate of evaporation by adjustment of thedisplaceable partition to change the size of the vaporizing chamber and,concur-' rently the distance of the saturated wick from the heat source.

In the specific embodiment illustrated in the drawings we have providedtwo vaporizing chambers each with its own displaceable partition, eachwith its own wick, each also provided with its own heating element. Asubstance like triethylene glycol, or other desired deodorant, aromatic,therapeutic, antiseptic, germicidal or bactericidal agent in liquidform, may be vaporized at a predetermined rate from one of thevaporizing chambers, while water may be vaporized from the othervaporizing chamber at a rate calculated to obtain and maintain thedesired relative humidity in the room being treated.

Referring now in more detail to the drawings I have shown a casingindicated generally at III. This casing has a front wall seen inelevation in Figure 2 and a rear wall in the form of a door I I. It isprovided with a base I2 and end walls I3 and I4. In the particularexample shown in the drawings the top is constituted by two arcuatemembers I5 and IS. The door II may be suitably hinged as indicated at ITin Figure 1, and maybe provided with suitable cooperating latch elementsI 8 and I9. A knob is provided for opening and closing the door II.

Within the casing II! we provide a partition or shelf 2| which generallydivides the easing into an upper and lower compartment. The uppercompartment is further subdivided by a partition 22. The partition 22divides the upper compartment of the casing into two chambers indicatedgenerally at A and B. In each of the chambers A and B there is provideda displaceable partition member 23-24. In the particular embodimentshown in the drawings the partitions 23 and 24 are displaceable by meansof a hinged mounting about the pintles 25 and 26.

Each vaporizing chamber is provided with a wick aperture in the member2I as shown at 21, 28. Wicks 29, 30, pass respectively from containers Wand G through the apertures 21, 28 into the respective vaporizingchambers C and D. The partitions 23, 24, are provided with securingelements 3 I, 32, to which the ends of the wicks 23, 30, arerespectively fastened. The container G may be a container or reservoirfor triethylene glycol or otherdeodorant, aromatic, therapeutic,antiseptic, germicidal or bactericidal 'liquids, while the container Wmay be a reservoir for water. Since generally speaking it will benecessary to vaporize more water than other substance, we have shown thecontainer W' as being considerably larger than container G, so that theymay both be filled at the same interval.

The top members I5 and and I6 are provided respectively with slots 33and 34 which constitute egress apertures for the chambers C and Drespectively. Each of the partitions 23, 24 is provided with a plate 35,36 which is arcuate to conform with the configuration of the respectivetop members I 5, I6. The plates 35, 36 are adapted to cover a part orall of the respective slots 33, 34. To each of the plate s 35, 36,-thereis secured a screw31,538,;extending through the slots 33, 34

and provided with a thumb nut 33, 40.

nut 39 is loosened and the partition 23 is swung toward the right inFigure 4, it will be clear that three things are accomplished: First thecubic content of the chamber C is reduced; Second the distance of thewick 29 from the heat source 25 is reduced, and Third the area of theegress opening I5 is reduced. When these three factors are allconcurrently reduced the vaporization rate is increased and will be atits maximum when the partition 23 is swung in a clockwise direction asfar as it will go. In the position shown in Figure 4 with the egressaperture I5 wide open, with the cubic content of the chamber C as largeas possible, and the wick 29 at its maximum distance from the heatsource 25, the vaporization rate will be at its minimum.

If desired pointers 43, 44 may be provided to cooperate with suitablescales 45, 45.

Electric current to operate the heating elements is supplied through anelectric cord 41 in conventional manner.

It will be understood that the vaporizer illus trated in the drawingshas been shown by way of example only. It will be clear that varioustypes of heating elements could be used instead of the individualelectric light bulbs 25, 26. As a matter of fact, the device wouldfunction equally well with a single heating element arranged to heatboth compartments and incorporated in the wall 22. Similarly, it will beunderstood that the displaceable partitions 23, 24, could be displacedby a simple sliding movement rather than by a hinged movement. Likewiseliquids other than triethylene glycol and water may be vaporized.

Fundamentally what we have shown and described above is a vaporizerwherein a vaporizing chamber is provided, together with means forvarying concurrently the cubic content of the chamber, the proximity ofthe wick to the heat source, and the area of an egress opening wherebythe vaporization rate may be controlled. We have also provided for adouble vaporizing device whereby the humidity of a room may becontrolled concurrently with the dissemination therein of a deodorant,aromatic therapeutic, antiseptic, germicidal or bactericidal liquid.

For the foregoing reasons we do wish to be limited in any way other thanas described in the claims which follow.

Having now fully described our invention what we claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A vaporizer comprising a casing divided into at least twocompartments, one a reservoir compartment'of fixed volume,- and theother a vaporizing compartment, a reservoir of liquid to be vaporized insaid reservoir compartment, a displaceable partition in said vaporizingcompart ment providing on one side thereof a vaporizing chamber ofvariable cubic content, a heating element in said vaporizing chamber, awick aperture communicating between said reservoir compartmen't and saidvaporizing chamber, ,andij wick extending from said reservoir-"throughsaid wick aperture and into said vaporizing chamber and secured to saiddisplaceable partition, whereby upon displacement of said partition thecubic content of said vaporizing chamber and the proximity of said wickto said heating element are varied concurrently, to vary the evaporationrate of said liquid.

2. A device according to claim 1, in which an egress aperture for vaporsfrom said vaporing chamber is provided, and in which displacement ofsaid partition also changes the area of said egress aperture.

3. A device according to claim 1, in which said partition is hingedlyconnected to a wall of said first mentioned compartment, the wallopposite said last mentioned wall being arcuate and having a radiussubstantially equal to the length of said partition.

4. A device according to claim 3, in which. said arcuate wall isprovided with a slot constituting the egress aperture and in which saidpartition is provided with a plate arranged to substantially close saidegress aperture when said partition is moved to its limit position inthe direction of reducing the cubic content of said vaporizing chamber.

5. A device according to claim 4 in which said plate is provided withmeans extending through said slot for adjusting and securing saidpartition.

6. A vaporizer comprising a casing divided into two compartments, one areservoir compartment of fixed volume, and the other a vaporizingcompartment, two reservoirs of liquids to be vaporized in said reservoircompartment, said vaporizing compartment being divided into twosections, a displaceable partition in each of said sections, eachproviding on one side thereof a, vaporizing chamber of variable cubiccontent, means for heating said vaporizing chambers, two Wick aperturescommunicating respectively between said reservoir compartment and eachof said vaporizing chambers, and a wick extending from each of saidreservoirs through the respective wick apertures and into the respectivevaporizing chambers and secured respectively to said displaceablepartitions, whereby upon displacement of a partition the cubic contentof the respective vaporizing chamber and the proximity of the respectivewick to said heating means are varied concurrently, to vary theevaporation rate of the respective liquid.

7. A device according to claim 6, in which an egress aperture isprovided for each vaporizing chamber, and in which displacement of therespective partition also changes the area of the respective egressaperture.

8. A device according to claim 6, in which each of said partions ishingely mounted on a wall of its respective section, the wall oppositesaid last mentioned wall being arcuate and having a radius substantiallyequal to the length of said partition.

9. A device according to claim 8, in which each of said arcuate walls isprovided with a slot constituting the egress aperture, and in which eachof said partitions is provided with a plate arranged to substantiallyclose the respective egress aperture when the respective partition ismoved to its limit position in the direction of reducing the cubiccontent of the respective vaporizing chamber.

10. A device according to claim 9, in which each of said plates isprovided with means extending through its respective slot for adjustingand securing the respective partition.

LAWRENCE W. WALLACE. CHARLES W. KIN CAID.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,429,112 Warren Oct. 14, 1947

